Alcohol at Texas gun shows proposed

Texas could start allowing alcohol sales at gun shows provided they don’t allow live ammunition or let buyers take possession of their weapons at the events.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced the proposal Friday. It will hold a 30-day public comment period before any change is made.

The proposal also would require that firearms being shown for sale be disabled and not readily convertible for use.

Under current rules, if a gun show is held at a venue licensed to sell alcohol, drinks sales and consumption are suspended during the time it takes to set up, conduct and dismantle the gun show.

“We got a request from a gun club in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to amend the rules,” said agency spokeswoman Carolyn Beck.

The Texas affiliate of the National Rifle Association said it had nothing to do with the request. The Texas State Rifle Association is still reviewing the proposal, said Alice Tripp, the group’s legislative director. She called it “confusing” and questioned whether gun advocates would want to attend gun shows with such restrictions.

“Does that make any sense? Who would buy a gun at a gun show where you couldn’t take possession of it?” she asked.

On the other hand, do we really want to invite more regulation from the ATF? Is this the kind of publicity we’re looking for? As much as I wish we had a constitutional right to self-ownership (which would protect drug use, alcohol, smoking, and anything that is a private choice that harms nobody but the individual), we do not have one. Every time you serve alcohol you invite regulation, it’s bad enough that our right to keep and bear arms is already regulated at the State and Federal level, do we want to attract more attention with booze? Something that isn’t a right? I’m not sure.

2 Responses to Alcohol at Texas gun shows proposed

Who wants to buy a disabled gun at a gun-show? We all know the ATF’s version of “not readily convertible into a working firearm” is completely flexible – depending on how much they want to screw people over on a particular day of the week.

If you can’t buy cheap ammo at a gun-show and all the guns are torch-cut into sevearl pieces (which is the approved method of turning a gun into something “not readily convertible into a firearm”) then what’s the point?